


Dinner With The Charmings

by Spacecadet72



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-09
Updated: 2012-11-09
Packaged: 2017-11-18 07:05:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/558208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spacecadet72/pseuds/Spacecadet72
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Emma Swan isn't happy about the fact that her mother invited the in-laws for dinner.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Set post-curse, but written pre-1x19 under the theory that August was Baelfire

     Snow, James, Emma and Bae sat in one of the family sitting room after dinner one evening.

  
     “I was thinking of inviting your father and Belle over for dinner, Bae.” Snow White spoke up, as she looked up from her cup of tea. Both James and Bae stiffened.

  
     “Where did you get that idea?”James asked, his posture, tone and expression mirroring the panic Bae was feeling.

  
     “Well, Belle is my friend and I thought it would be nice.” Snow answered matter of factly.

  
     “My step-mother is not the problem.” Bae spoke up, sounding slighty harsher than he meant to.

  
     Snow looked at the panic on her husband’s and son-in-law’s faces, and the warning look on her daughter’s.

  
     Snow sighed. “Just think about it.” she said, slightly disappointed, but realizing that now was not the time to fight for this. She’d get them to see reason later.

  
     Bae seemed agitated the rest of the evening and left the room much sooner than the others. Emma exchanged a look with her mother and then followed her husband out of the room.

  
     She found him in their rooms. He sat on the edge of the bed, fiddling with his arms. She walked quickly to the bed and put her arm around him as she joined him on the bed.

  
     “You don’t have to say yes.” she said quietly. She loved her parents, almost as much as she loved having parents, but living with them as a newlywed, even in a spacious castle, definitely had it’s downsides.

  
     Bae sighed. “No, I can handle one social situation. Especially with family.” he said smiling softly. “I love my father, I do, and Belle is great.” he paused, thinking of when his father and Belle had first gotten together in Storybrooke. It was a little weird at first, because they appeared to be so close in age, but it hadn’t taken him long to get over the age gap. Regardless of physical appearances, both he and his father had been alive centuries longer than Belle, so it was a moot point anyway.   He shook his head, coming back to the task at hand. He tried to find the right words before starting again. “My father can be…difficult when he wants to, and heaven knows our fathers have never seen eye to eye.”

  
     Emma nodded. That was an understatement. Rumplestiltskin thought James was an idiot and James never got over the fact that many of Rumplestiltskin’s deals had caused him and those he loved pain.

  
     Bae sat up straighter, putting on a determine smile. “I think I will agree to let your mother set this up. How bad can one dinner be?”  
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-  
     Snow exited the carriage outside of the dark castle. Rumplestiltskin was no longer the dark one, but he was still a very powerful man and it definitely helped being a royal’s father-in-law.

  
     Snow was quite close with Belle and had more respect for Rumplestiltskin than most people-even after he had helped to break the curse-but she was glad he wouldn’t be joining them for tea.

  
     Belle met her at the top of the outside stairs. “Snow!” she exclaimed happily, moving to hug her guest.

  
     Snow returned the greeting and the two moved inside. They chatted happily about nothing in particular as they moved to the main sitting room in the castle.  
     Once they were sitting, Snow thought it the perfect time to invite her friend.

  
     “James and I were thinking that it would be fun if you would join us and Bae and Emma for dinner one night.” Snow said, a little too quickly. Why was she nervous about this idea all of a sudden?

  
     Belle lit up. “That sounds wonderful!” she said sincerely. “I’ll try to get Rum to behave.” she said, smirking.

  
     Snow looked exasperated. “Why does everyone keep saying that? It’s just dinner.”

  
     Belle looked slightly sheepish as she explained. “My husband is not the biggest fan of social engagements-even small ones-” she hurried to add on as Snow started to protest. “And he can be pretty ornery when he wants to be.”

  
     Snow nodded in understanding. “Well, don’t feel like you have to accept. It’s not problem at all.”

  
     Belle shook her head. “No, we’d love to come. We’ll be on our best behavior.” Belle smiled sunnily and the conversation moved on to other topics.  
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-  
     Snow, James, Emma and Bae sat in the same sitting room where this all started. Even Snow, who thought this was a good idea, seemed to have succumbed to nerves. Belle and Rumplestiltskin were to due to arrive any moment. Dinner was ready and all they could do now was wait. Before long, a footman announced their guests and Belle and Rumplestiltskin walked into the room. Rumplestiltskin wore much less leather than he used to, but his clothing was still that of nobility. Belle wore a light blue evening dress, and looked much more comfortable than anyone else in the room.

  
     She had an edge of nervousness to her, however, and Rumplestiltskin, despite being perfectly polite, looked like he’d rather be anywhere else. Belle went to sit with the other women and they were soon chatting happily. This left the men to their own devices.

  
     Rumplestiltskin sat stiffly on the couch across from the his son and the king.

  
     “How have you been, Papa?” Bae asked, trying to break the awkward silence.

  
     Rumplestiltskin cleared his throat. “I’ve been good. I can’t really complain. I trust everyone here has been good?” Bae and James both answered in the affirmative, and then the awkward silence was back.

  
     This lasted a few more moments before Bae launched into some story about going into town. The story was a long one, but interesting and was soon punctuated with comments from both his father and father-in-law. Bae noticed Rumplestiltskin’s eyes wandering as he spoke. He kept talking, but follwed where his father’s eyes went, and smiled softly as he saw the the object of his father’s attention was his step-mother. Her eyes sparkled as she laughed, talking animatedly with the other women. His own wife looked happy and at ease, and he was grateful that everyone in this room had gotten their happy endings. Happy endings were common in this world, but they were far from a guarantee in the other world, and everyone had learned not to take them for granted.

  
     Bae turned his attention back to the other men just in time to hear a footman announce that dinner was ready. Everyone in the room stood, and the women moved to join their husbands.

  
     “You look like you were enjoying yourself, dearest.” Rumplestiltskin murmured as Belle took his arm.

  
     She smiled back. “I did. It was good to catch up.”

  
     “Well, I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself at least.” he answered with a smirk.

  
     She smacked his arm lightly. “Behave.” she said sternly, but her eyes sparkled from the smile she was trying to suppress. They followed behind the other two couples, quickly reaching the dining room.


	2. Chapter 2

    The tension in the room could be cut with a knife. Rumplestiltskin was slowly sipping a glass of wine, and had become snarkier and more sarcastic as the night went on. His insults were subtle, but no one in the room was fooled.

  
     “Where is the young prince?” Rumplestiltskin asked, the wine giving his tone some of the extravagance of his former life.

  
     Emma was the one who answered. “He’s at a sleepover at Red and Jiminy’s. He wanted to see the twins.”

  
     Rumplestiltskin and Belle nodded. Belle hoped that Rumplestiltskin would just let this one go, but knew better than that. Everyone was cringing inside, but Rumplestiltskin was in his element. He didn’t want to be here, and made sure everyone else felt exactly the same way. Belle loved this man with everything she had, (he was her true love after all) but he could really be an….idiot sometimes.

  
     “Well,” Rumplestiltskin began, with much more malice than the situation called for. “It must be nice to have him out of house again.”

  
     Belle’s eyes widened.

  
     “What’s that supposed to mean?” Emma asked, having finally reached her limit with him.

  
     “You can take whatever implication you want from that statement.” Rumplestiltskin responded coolly.

  
     Emma looked enraged, and Bae placed a comforting hand on her arm, trying to stop the inevitable confrontation. “Father…” he said, quietly, but there was a warning in him tone.

  
     Belle eye’s widened even more and she busied herself with emptying her wine glass.

  
     Snow spoke then, trying to alleviate the tension. “Why don’t we have dessert? The cook made a delightful treacle pudding.” James looked like he wanted to say something, but thought better of it.

  
     Everyone ignored her. Belle looked around the room, trying to ascertain the best way to fix the situation. She hesitated for a moment before pushing her chair back from the table.

  
     “Well, dinner was lovely. Thank you, Snow, James.” she said, sincerely. “It was lovely to see you too, Emma and Bae.” Bae nodded in response, but Emma didn’t seem to hear her, still focusing her anger on Rumplestiltskin.

  
     Belle turned to Snow White. “I’ll see you next week?” Snow nodded. She then turned her attention to her husband. “I think it’s time we left.”

  
He turned to her, quirking an eyebrow upward. “We haven’t even had dessert yet, dearie.”

  
     Belle looked murderous. Rumplestiltskin stood up quickly and wished, for not the first time, that he still had his magic and could whisk them away at a moment’s notice. Instead, they quickly hurried out of the dining room before exiting the castle.  
———————————————————————————————————————————————————————  
     Emma stalked out of the stunned dining room. Bae followed close behind her, not completely sure how to clean up this mess.

  
     “I’m so sorry for my dad.” he said quietly once they had reached their chambers.

  
     “I just can’t believe he’s your father.”

  
     Bae sighed. “He didn’t used to be like that. Before the curse, he was a very loving man. He’s not as bad as he used to be, but you don’t come out of centuries of being the Dark One unscathed.” Emma moved closer linking her arms behind his neck. “Belle’s helped a lot.” he admitted, wrapping his arms around her waist.

  
     Emma rolled her eyes. “I’d have hated to see him before.”

  
     Bae nodded. “He was similar to the Queen, their motivations were just different.”

  
     Emma nodded, and then leaned in to place a soft kiss on his jaw. Now that they were away from the situation and completely alone, she felt her anger draining away.

  
     Bae smiled, and leaned down to kiss her properly.

  
     He pulled back after a moment, smiling fondly down at her. “Thank you.” he said simply.

  
     “For what?” she asked, looking confused.

  
     “For being by my side.” he said before leaning down to kiss her again.  
—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-  
     Rumplestiltskin followed Belle into the foyer of the dark castle. He could tell she wasn’t very happy with him, and braced himself for the coming confrontation.

  
     “You didn’t have to do that, you know.” Belle said sounding angry. Rumplestiltsin remained quiet. “They were just trying to be nice.”    “How can you stand them?” he asked incredulously.

  
    Belle sighed. “I know you don’t like them, but Bae is married to their daughter. They’re family now.”

  
    Rumplestiltskin snorted.

  
    Belle gave him a disparaging look. He simply stared back.

  
    Belle’s frown deepened. “You’re not getting away with it that easily.”

  
    “It wasn’t that bad.” Rumplestiltskin said in defense.

  
    Belle shot him a look. “You basically called Emma a bad mother.”

  
    Rumplestiltskin sighed. “I did do that. I will admit that that comment was uncalled  for, but as for the rest….” he trailed off smirking slightly. “You can’t tell me that it wasn’t fun to watch them squirm.” he said, pulling her close.

  
    Belle sighed loudly, indicating that she was giving in. “Maybe a little.” she said, smirking slightly.

  
    He grinned back and leaned down to kiss her.

 


End file.
